Rwanda : Kigali kick starts EAAPAC meeting

Kigali hosts a five –day 6thAnnual General Meeting and conference of the Eastern Africa Association of Public Ac­counts Committees (EAAPAC) to build the capacity of members of the different Public Accounts Committees (PACs), and MPs effectiveness in general.

Among the issues to be discussed is the questioned ability on Rwanda’s parliament in dealing with matters related to the public accounts following how the controversial Ru­karara saga.

At that time, the head of PAC, Juvenal Nkusi said some of MPs lack expertise in dealing with particular mat­ters like transparency and ac­countability in relation to pub­lic funds management.

With reference to the Ad hoc commit­tee’s mistakes which resulted in accusing innocent people over the Rukarara hydro power plant mismanagement, in a re­port which was later rejected and saw PAC assigned to rein­vestigate the matter, ending up by clearing all the officials al­leged in the matter.

Nkusi, highlighted that, Rwanda should have experts in particular fields affiliated to our committees.

“Am optimistic that this conference held at the parliament will contribute a lot to preventing such mis­takes from happening again, by equipping MPs with the ability to promote accountability with maximum effectiveness, he said.

Adding that: “Our PAC was established last year. In the region we have PACs that have been working for at least 30 years like in Ugan­da. We will learn from them the principles and challenges that play a part in our duty. This will enhance our capacities as an oversight committee in en­suring accountability based on budget formulation and spend­ing.”

The conference has attracted 12 countries from the region, and 72 delegates are expected in Kigali. The countries to at­tend are Uganda, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Ma­lawi, Ethiopia, Namibia, Libe­ria, South Sudan, Burundi and Rwanda.

The conference comes as an attachment to its mission of building capacity of member PACs to promote ac­countability in the use of public resources.

“We will share with our experienced colleagues, knowledge about budget for­mulation process, spending and expenditure control in relation to accountability, transparency, and the role of development partners in budget formulation and spending,” Nkusi stated.

Rwanda’s PAC head believes EAAPC’s general meeting will leave Rwandan MPs informed on strategies to improve budget transparency and accountabil­ity among other salient subtop­ics.

Legislators will also create networks and exchange con­tacts for future communication particularly on matters finan­cial oversight.

During the meeting, Rwandan MPS will have time to do an overview on the bud­get formulation process with an emphasis on the role of the legislature, identify weaknesses and best practices in the budget formulation process and how these can be addressed and what should entail an effective budget formulation.

EAAPAC’s vision is to distin­guish itself as an organization empowering its members to ef­fectively carry out functions as oversight committees over the public sector finances and pro­moting accountability and good governance.